Things That Go Bump In The Night

I'm always amazed just how noisy life is in Israel. The Petersham house, while on a busy street between Kingston and Richmond, and directly under the Heathrow flight path when the wind is right, is so quiet. When it rains in the UK, which is quite often, we can never tell and I have to go look out the window in the morning to see if I need my rain gear. Last night, the rain started here in Raanana some time in the evening and went off and on all night. I could hear every raindrop. I hear the neighbors cars arriving and their arguments over how he does not talk nicely (hmmmm). Yes, we now have neighbors all around and opposite and below. I hear their kids coming home in the early hours on the weekends. But mostly it's the elevator that really bothers me.

You know when you move to a new house after 15 years there are bound to be some new noises. The creaks and bangs are different. The doors squeak at a different frequency and the cat's meow echos weirdly. Our new room is on the lower floor, near the kitchen and lounge dining room. We picked this room, because it's smaller and seeing as we are living over the water, it seemed a good idea to let the kids have the upper floor and bigger rooms. What I did not realize is that the wall our bed is against, is right against the lift (elevator) shaft. Every time anyone uses the elevator I hear the door open and close, the whir of the machinery and the door open and close again. Sometimes it starts with the whir then he doors. I can now tell whether it's stopping at the first or second floor. Luckily our building only has two floors and eight apartments, so it's not like being next to the elevator in a 20 story hotel, but still.